According to the National Association of Social Workers, there are six core social work values: Dignity and Worth of a Person; Integrity; Importance of Human Relationships; Service; Social Justice; and Competency.
These core social work values serve as the ideals to which all social workers should aspire (NASW, 2008). And while all six core social work values are noble, something is missing and that is introspection.
Carl Jung, the father of Jungian Therapy, defined introspection as “The process of reflection that focuses on personal reactions, behavior patterns and attitudes.” He is quoted as saying, “Man’s task is to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious.”
Introspection has been a controversial topic as it pertains to social work. Some argue that personal self-reflection is not the same as professional self-reflection. In 1975, NASW published an article arguing that while it’s important to always re-evaluate our purpose, intent and meaning as social workers, it should never cross our purpose, intent and meaning as people. But that was in 1975 and now, almost 40 years later, it’s evident that social workers’ personal and professional biases and triggers often overlap, making it difficult to decipher when one ends and the other begins.
Introspection vs. Self-Awareness
Let’s look at cultural competency, an important social work standard. One of the ways we achieve cultural competency is though self-awareness. Self-awareness is needed as “social workers seek to develop an understanding of their own personal, cultural values and beliefs as one way of appreciating the importance of multi-cultural identities in the lives of people” (NASW, 2008).
However, let’s be clear. Having an awareness of who we are as a male, female, African American, Hispanic, gay or straight individual is not the same as being able to introspect and self-reflect on a journey by facing our painful past, demons, fears and/or triggers.
Introspection allows us to investigate our motives and intentions for wanting to be social workers. They help us to identify our ego, reflect on it and eventually crucify it, so that we may truly serve our clients. Many social workers and their work are ego driven. They feel that: 1) they know what’s best for their clients; 2) they want to save the world; 3) they have a need to be needed; or 4) they want to give everyone the same “happy” life they had. Unless we make a conscious effort to self-reflect on what is really driving our desire to be social workers, we will never be what our clients need us to be for them.
Social Workers Must Find Peace with Their Journey
As social workers, we meet clients all the time in dire situations. Many have addictions not just to legal and illegal substances, but to their own pain and past misfortunes. Many have pathologies of abuse and many simply become the product of their environment. Well, guess what? So do many of our social workers. However, their demons are not always as evident and their addictions are many times hidden and are often legal — like alcohol, sex, gambling or food.
Anytime we come face to face with a client who brings up our own triggers and demons, it affects us. Counter transference can be dangerous if we haven’t been able to learn how it manifest in us, how to recognize it and how to conquer it.
You can’t coach anyone into going anywhere that you aren’t first willing to go yourself.
The collateral damage of becoming a social worker is that we run the risk of getting stuck on making ourselves feel better, bigger, more grander at the expense of someone else’s plight. We can’t encourage and even enforce our clients to walk “right” when we ourselves are walking “left.”
Dr. Maria Nameth, a life coach and author of Mastering Life’s Energies: Simple Steps to a Luminous Life at Work and Play — who also consults with social workers on a national stage — reminds us that you can’t coach anyone into going anywhere that you aren’t first willing to go yourself.
While I respect the NASW core values, it leaves us no room to work on ourselves. Sure, we’ve got dignity and worth, competence and integrity, service and social justice. However, when we are in the business of healing others, shouldn’t we be required to heal as well?
The Link between Introspection and Vicarious Trauma
Vicarious Trauma or Secondary Trauma is an issue that haunts any professional who is in the profession of helping others. Oftentimes, vicarious trauma doesn’t announce itself. It doesn’t give us warning and it doesn’t leave unmistakable clues. The symptoms include, but are not limited, to:
- intrusive thoughts
- chronic fatigue
- sadness
- anger
- poor concentration
- second guessing
- detachment
- emotional exhaustion
- fearfulness
- shame
- physical illness
The problem with these symptoms lies in the fact that so many other disorders present with the same type of symptoms. How do we recognize when a social worker is suffering from vicarious trauma? Is it that client who pushes our buttons? Is it that client whose mental illness makes us so uncomfortable we want to crawl out of our skin? Is it that child molester whom we despise with every fiber of our being? Is it that batterer whom we subconsciously want to see suffer so we refuse to return his calls for help? Or is that teenage runaway whom we wish would stay lost?
Whatever the reason, the question is how do we get clear about what’s inhibiting us from truly servicing our client? Because when it’s all said and done, isn’t that what we should be fighting for?
Introspection opens the door for us to evaluate who and where we are: mentally, emotionally and psychologically. And since that is what we expect from our clients, shouldn’t we expect the same of ourselves?
LaQuitta Cole is a MSW student and California State University, Long Beach and can be reached at hallla@dcfs.lacounty.gov.
